TRP: Jasper, Larkin, and Morgan (OUAT In Calimport)
Day figure it out, Calimport There was only one thing to say about Larkin's trip to Calimport so far: fucking waste of money and time. Not that'd she'd spent as much of both as any normal person without the right contacts would have- teleporting saved her the two weeks travel time, and having Azriel cast it made it cheap as fuck compared to what one would usually spend. Still, there was no fucking trace of Renar to be found yet and it was making Larkin bite her nails to shreds. By this time, she supposed, he must've had some success. Some people working for him, a name on the streets. She'd considered he might have changed it, to not fall in with the bigger branches of their family but assuming they were only half as sharp as Renar, they must know he was in town. No, it didn't make any fucking sense. Not even trapping and shaking down a couple runts on the streets had gotten her information worth the while. It was like Renar had dissolved into thin air. Like he' just... Nah, it couldn't be. Renar fucking Basha always got his way. Renar fucking Basha survived when everything around him burned. Larkin stopped her pacing and frowned at the candle providing the sole source of light in the cellar. It was burning low. She'd have to get a new one soon or she'd sit in the dark. Being a cellar, the room had no windows either. It was very similar to Finch's bunker- even had the same smell of stagnant air. She'd found it by following a few street rats around, then paid them each a healthy sum to let her bunk on their hideout for a week. Most of 'em hadn't held that much money before, and they'd made efforts to get more out of Larkin before she'd shooed them away. Now it was hers, along with a tattered straw mat on the floor and a blanket smelling of mould. She could've stayed in an inn, but Larkin didn't care for how public that was. And the temple of Mask... well, they'd have taken her in, and without asking questions, but as far as piety went, Larkin suspected she'd have some things to answer for, and neither time nor patience to take care of her religious shortcomings. Right now, though, she was all but ready to fall to her knees and pray for a little divine hint. COYOTE People were staring at Jasper. Jasper limped along, trying to look nonchalant, but when she glanced behind her... ah. That’s why people were staring. Because she was tracking blood down the street. Jasper muttered a curse. She stopped and wiped her feet as much as possible, trying to ignore the weak, light-headed feeling of losing too much blood. Oh. Hey. She knew this part of town. This was... this was where Larkin was staying. Jasper dragged herself to the cellar door and knocked: shave-and-a-haircut. She slid slowly down the wall to catch her breath. Fucking vampires. JEN Larkin was pulled back out of her thoughts by a knock on the door. She wasn't expecting anyone- the kids, maybe, but she wasn't so much expecting them than dreading them. She hurried to grab her crossbow off the sleeping mat and positioned herself behind the door. Not that the flimsy thing would keep anyone out but... it was something. "Who's there?" She called, actually hoping for the runts now. COYOTE “Aw— fuck. Fuck, I need like a.... codename or something. Jasper. Jasper Melaine. A vampire bit me. Can I fuckin’— hide here a minute?” JEN Larkin ripped open the door before Jasper had even finished. She aimed the crossbow at headlevel, prepared for anyone that might be with Jasper, but dropped it when she saw her on the ground. Larkin went down to help Jasper sit upright, hands getting tacky with blood. "Shit," she said. "What the fuck, Jasper. What the fuck." COYOTE “Most of it isn’t mine. Fucking vampires. Did I tell you Wyn and I are hunting vampires? Well... not hunting. Wanna talk to, more like. This one wanted to fucking eat us though, I guess.” JEN Most of it not hers? The way Jasper was talking she was close to fucking delirious. Larkin kicked the crossbow aside and wrapped Jasper's arms around her neck to try and pull her up. COYOTE Jasper dragged herself up, leaning on Larkin, despite how tiny Larkin was. She wasn’t injured at all, just drained— maybe literally— and soaked in somebody else’s blood. “Morgan,” Jasper said. Had to focus. Gotta find Morgan. JEN "What about fucking Morgan," Larkin muttered while dragging Jasper inside. She navigated her over to the mat and sat her down. The thing wasn't much of a barrier between Jasper and the floor but better than nothing, just like the door. COYOTE “Partner. Gotta find her,” Jasper said. She sat heavily on the mat. JEN "Yeah, no, not happening." Larkin let go of Jasper and went to shut the door. COYOTE Jasper itched at that. She let out a breath, glancing at the door. Morgan hadn’t looked hurt when they escaped; they’d gotten separated purely by accident. She was pretty fucking sure Morgan would be out looking for her, too. “Just need, like... ten minutes to sit down,” Jasper muttered. She uncorked her flask and drank from it, still sticky with blood. JEN Larkin just shook her head. No arguing with that woman; she was better off just forcing help upon her. Larkin got the candle from where it burned in a nook in the wall and brought it over to better see. Didn't help much but there were at least no obvious gaping wounds. Still, that was an awful lot of blood... Larkin gingerly picked at a piece of clothing so soaked through it stuck to Jasper like a second skin. COYOTE Jasper watched, amused. The blood was starting to dry in flakes. “Alright, so, listen.” Jasper scrubbed her hand through her hair. “I feel like shit for asking this, but I need your help—“ Eh. Larkin was on her side. She’d help. “We went to meet a vampire and got attacked,” Jasper said bluntly. “Morgan and I agreed if we ever got separated, we’d head back to the inn and meet up there, but I’m pretty sure there’ll be fuckers waiting to kill us there. You wanna come with?” She grinned, showing her teeth. “Fuck some people up?” JEN Larkin stopped trying to get a better view of the potential wounds and put a hand to Jasper's face. Then the other. She looked her in the eyes and slowly shook her head. "Vampires." COYOTE “Yeah, yeah. Y’know. With the—“ Jasper made a motion to her mouth and bared her teeth. “Right?” JEN "Jasper. Vampires are not real." COYOTE Jasper silently started stripping off her bloody shirt. She gestured to her naked shoulder, which was covered in bite marks. JEN "Well, I mean-" Larkin grimaced at the wounds. Had to fucking clean those good. "Some psycho's gotten a bite outta you." COYOTE Jasper scoffed. “Hey. Can I borrow a shirt?” JEN "That's the only one I have," Larkin said and gestured at herself. "I can get you one, though." COYOTE Jasper fingered the material, then glanced at Larkin from the corners of her eyes. “Eh, you’re probably too small for me anyway.” JEN Larkin snorted. "Yeah, that also." She threw a glance at the candle when it flickered sharply. Right. She needed more light. And a shirt, apparently, and... "Listen, Jasper, I'm gonna go get some stuff real quick. Wait here, alright?" COYOTE Jasper shrugged. Wasn’t like she could go anywhere else. JEN --- Half an hour later, Larkin returned with a handful of candles and an oversized tunic, both filched from the first house with an open window she'd come across. She lit the candles on the one just barely staying alive in the wall nook, and set them out next to the mat on the floor. "Here," she said, and held the tunic out to Jasper. COYOTE Jasper blinked awake, still bleary. The clothes didn’t look like Larkin clothes— they looked like she’d filched them from a clothes line. She grabbed the clothes and started to strip, peeling the blood-soaked cloth off herself. JEN "There anyone coming after you, do you think?" COYOTE Morgan, Jasper thought. "Nah," Jasper said. "I'm fucking going after them. You coming with?" JEN Larkin had no intentions of letting Jasper go but in the end, there was no stopping her from trying to find Morgan. Larkin had no choice other than to leaver her alone or tag along, so she choose the latter. Like this she might at least prevent more vampire attacks. Larkin had her eyes on the rooftops and all the dark, gaping alley mouths they passed by on their way to the inn. This city was a strange place to Larkin and it made the back of her neck prickle not knowing exactly what threats to expect. COYOTE Jasper padded along silently in her borrowed clothes. When they reached the inn, Jasper stopped across the street, watching the entrance. Jasper sank back into the shadows where Larkin already was. There were, in fact, people at the inn-- royal soldiers, looked like. Some of them were vaguely pale and stiff. "Vampire spawn," Jasper said quietly. "Hey, where's your fucking cousin? He pretends to be some kinda holy man, right? He around? He kill undead?" JEN "Goro's not exactly around," Larkin said. She'd come here all on her own, not expecting to see anyone from home. COYOTE "Yeah. Yeah." Jasper's eyes were unfocused. "So, we kill 'em all or we sneak in, you figure?" There looked to be five men. Maybe they could do both. JEN "God, no. We gotta be careful, Jasper." COYOTE "Pft." JEN Larkin rolled her eyes. Probably lost on Jasper in the dark. "Look, I ain't fighting five men and you're in no shape to either. So, we gonna do this my way or no way at all." COYOTE Jasper started to grin. "Well-- yes, ma'am." Jasper could do that. "Lead the way." Ahead, there were two men on the ground floor outside, guarding the door. The innkeeper fidgeted nervously like to them. Jasper could see two more in the window of the second floor, in Jasper and Morgan's room. The fifth was missing. Jasper slid behind Larkin, watching. JEN Ignoring the two in front, Larkin made her way straight to the back of the building, doing a little detour down an alley than ran around the side and through a small, overgrown garden. The backyard of the inn was enclosed by a flimsy wooden fence and stacks of barrels and crates. A well sat in the middle of it. Someone was bent over the rim, back to Larkin and Jasper, hauling up water in a bucket. Larkin gestured to Jasper to be still and watch. The worker lifted the bucket over the rim and went to get a second one and, when that too had filled, hefted up both to return inside the building. Larkin took her chance. She squeezed through a gap in a barrel stack and snuck after the worker as they kicked open the door with a foot and went inside. Just before it fell closed all the way, Larkin reached for the handle and caught it. For a moment, she waited, waiting to see if the worker would notice. Nothing happened, though, besides the sound of footsteps retreating from within. Larkin let out the breath she'd held and gestured to Jasper. COYOTE Jasper watched as Larkin silently moved in. She was always impressed by what a damn professional Larkin was— not like the regular run-of-the-mill smash-and-grab thieves Jasper was used to. Jasper pulled her stolen hood over her face to hide her thick yellow hair and fair skin (too easy to see in the dark) and moved in after Larkin. They were in a small stockroom meant for employees. There was a small, clunky table for playing cards or eating, and a large tankard of strong-smelling ale. Jasper and Morgan’s room was on the second story. There were stairs leading up— doubtless into the upstairs stockroom. JEN Larkin paused at the adjacent door to listen. When there was no sign of anyone entering soon, she crossed over to the stairs and waved for Jasper to follow. Maybe they wouldn't need to sneak through the entire inn. COYOTE Jasper padded up after her, checking behind them as she went. Jasper was good at cutting people down and not super good at knocking them out. Hopefully they managed to avoid everyone. Upstairs, Jasper cracked the door open into the hallway and checked. Empty— but there were muffled noises coming from inside Jasper and Morgan’s room. JEN Larkin slunk out of the door, leading but looking back to see Jasper indicate the door. She positioned herself beside it and slowly, carefully, tried the handle. IZZY It turned. The room was fucking trashed, like it had been turned over by burglars, and then someone had shanked those burglars and left their bodies on the floor to soak blood into the floorboards. Two of them, to be specific. The third one was bleeding out, too -- sat in a chair with his hands tied behind the back, and a rapier stabbed down into his right thigh, sticking upright, and a stiletto lodged carefully under the same kneecap. You got a favorite leg? Morgan had asked him, then gone for the one he didn't pick. She'd fucking get around to the other one if he didn't tell her where his pals had put Jasper. Fuckin' Jasper, being a hero, getting herself fucked up. Morgan was going to have to explain tactical retreats to that woman, some time before shit went south again. For now, she had a bootheel propped on the edge of the chair and the rest of the boot pressing down against this jackass's nuts, covering his mouth to keep the screams from being too loud. In a low voice, she snarled, "Y'know, pal, I don't usually go for torture. There's a lot of easier fucking ways to get what I want. But you really got on my bad side." She bore down on him harder, making him choke and struggle. "Now you're gonna tell me what your little chums did with my blond friend." He begged. He said he didn't know. He said they hadn't captured her, as far as he knew. And Morgan figured he was probably telling the truth, but she was too fucking angry and scared for Jasper at this point to give a shit. She was plenty banged and nicked up herself, but she was a coward with a strong self-preservation drive, and Jasper seemed like the type to not let on or even notice until she was almost dead. And if she had bled out alone somewhere, because Morgan had gotten it into her head to became a vampire and drag her along, then ... COYOTE For a while, Jasper wondered if Morgan were simply dead, which— didn’t feel fucking fair, after they went through all that work keeping her alive. After fighting that beast in the volcano and trying to get her to sleep and— coming with her to Calimport, for some reason— But here she was, soaked in blood, two dead men at her feet, a third tied to a chair with his eyes wide and face twisted up in agony— Good, Jasper thought viciously, he oughta be fucking afraid— Here she was. Jasper didn’t say anything, just quickly closed the door behind her and Larkin. She wanted to hug Morgan, maybe, but figured she shouldn’t. Might be weird. IZZY Morgan twisted towards the door, ripping the stiletto out of her little captive's knee before registering -- fucking Jasper Melaine and for some reason Larkin Basha, which was puzzling, but sure, why not. Blue or Greenie would've slit the guy's throat and gotten rid of him, since he was useless now. Red -- huh -- Morgan, that was -- she didn't have the same killer instinct somehow. She just spun the stiletto and cracked him in the head with the pommel to knock him out, and took half a step closer. "Shit, Jasper, you look ... I mean, fuck, are you good?" She couldn't help being curious about who Jasper had brought with, too, flickering between the two of them. She tilted her chin at Larkin, adding, "'Sup, Basha," to acknowledge her. JEN "'Sup." Larkin mimicked the gesture. She edged along the wall behind Jasper, trying to find a spot to stand that wasn't soaked in blood. God, what a fucking mess. It even stank of copper in here. Would've been impressive, if Larkin had liked Wyn better. COYOTE Morgan didn’t kill the guy. Knocked him out, instead. Huh, Jasper thought. Jasper didn’t say anything, just grinned stupidly at her. Then she caught herself— and she remembered how Azriel always acted cool and charming when he was trying to get somebody to like him— and then she caught herself again, because why the fuck was she trying to act like Azriel around Morgan? Mysterious. “I’m good,” Jasper said. Probably a little pale, what with all the blood they drank out of her, but otherwise good. Better now that they’d found Morgan. God. IZZY Morgan looked her up and down. Well, she'd made it this far, at least. Looked like she could use a healer, but there wasn't one on hand, so ... What Morgan felt like doing was running at Jasper and climbing her like a fucking tree, because now the surprise was out of the way and there was no danger, she was relieved as fuck to just see her. And she took a step closer before stopping and remembering their current situation. "Good. Same." She looked to Larkin again. "Guess you got some help, eh? Great having friends in the area." She really wanted to ask why the little Basha was in town, but it wasn't any of her goddamn business, so she blew past it. "Hey, there's a dead guy for each of us to chuck in the canal, if you're both up for it." Present problem. Solve that, then she could get busy -- er, busy herself with Jasper. Making sure she was actually okay, and shit like that. Get the blood off her. JEN Larkin was in no fucking mood to get rid of bodies tonight, but she'd let herself be roped into this by Jasper and she wasn't about to ditch her now. She shrugged. "Sure, sounds fun." COYOTE Jasper picked up the nearest body and heaved it over her shoulder. She was pretty sure the third guy wasn't dead-- well, he might be brain-damaged after getting hit on the head with a stiletto. She decided not to mention it, figuring maybe they'd leave him alive. God, it felt so fucking good to see Morgan alive. Everything was fine. Looking up, even. She changed her mind and, instead of heading out the door, dumped the body back down again and pulled Morgan into a fast, one-armed hug, using it to (briefly) check her over, make sure she wasn't injured or dying. Then she grinned and picked the body up again. "Shall we?" Jasper said, headed for the door. IZZY Morgan went oof quietly from the force of Jasper's hug, a little too startled to return it properly. Fucking nice, though, seeing Jasper grinning, hefting corpses around like they weren't shit. She returned the grin and bent to pull the other body up by the armpits, hooking them into her elbows. It wasn't the best way to haul a corpse around, she'd bet (body disposal had never been her forte), but she was a scrawny bitch and it was the best she could do. She waved a hand vaguely at Larkin, and tilted her head at the guy still tied up. "You want to, uh, take care of that, there, killer?" It wasn't like Morgan didn't have the stomach for murder. Maybe she'd just gotten kind of tired of it, at some point. There'd been a lot of it in her underground conquest, and she'd started letting -- asking? who remembered -- Blue to handle that side of things. JEN Sure, doing dirty work for fucking Morgan Wyn now. Why not. Larkin scowled but that didn't change the fact that they had to do something about the guy- dumping him alive might fall back onto them. Not so nice. She gave Wyn a look, then drew a knife and walked over to the guy in the chair. No chance avoiding the blod now. Oh well. His throat opened into a nasty, leaking gash and Larkin used the last bit of clean clothes on him to wipe down the blade. Then she cut the ropes holding him and the body thumped to the floor. "What about their friends outside?" Larkin asked, looking up from the corpse. COYOTE Jasper eyed the men outside from the second-story window. She unstrapped the greataxe from her back and spun it idly. “Vampires mind-control people, don’t they?” Jasper said. “Spawn, I mean.” IZZY "They sure do." Morgan watched her spinning the axe appreciatively. COYOTE “Leave ‘em, then. Not hard to slip past again.” Jasper kept the axe out, though. Just in case. JEN Larkin doubted that, at least when each of them had a body in tow, but when Jasper said things like this, she'd learned there was no arguing. She'd have to keep her knife ready then. She sighed, glanced at the corpse at her feet, then bent to hook her arms under his armpits and hauled him up. Fucker was heavy. They'd need to hurry. IZZY Morgan shrugged. "We can give it a shot. Push comes to shove, we just murder everyone, eh?" She grinned, a bit weakly because she didn't exactly relish the thought, and hauled her designated dead bastard back up to haul him out. COYOTE “Y’know, something occurs to me. Morgan? D’you wanna stay here at the inn, still? And keep our stuff here and keep sleeping here and shit? Because it strikes me as a bad idea now that somebody came to kill us here.” IZZY "Oh, yeah, no, fuck that, sweetheart. We're going the fuck somewhere else." COYOTE “Then let’s grab our stuff and fucking go. Seems like these dead bodies are the innkeeper’s problem, honestly.” JEN "Agreed," Larkin said, and let her body sag down. "Let's get goin'." IZZY "Psh, yeah." Morgan thought about winking at Jasper and telling her how fuckin' smart she was in some suggestive way -- there had to be a comment in there about having a good head -- but, nah. Larkin was being pretty cool about helping out, and Morgan figured she shouldn't ostracize her. She still winked at Jasper, though. end Category:Text Roleplay